Yakiniku, Hyatt Regency

And my quest to find Chennai’s restaurants that dish out amazing Japanese cuisine recently brought me to a place closer to home. Literally, considering it’s just a walk away from my house — Hyatt Regency. Their latest restaurant Yakiniku is the only one I hadn’t been to and thanks to an invite for their new menu, that’s ticked off my list too. I was recently here to check out a couple of dishes that they’ve added to their already rocking menu. I got to try a bit of everything they had to offer and incidentally, they’ve tweaked the menu in such a way that all segments of it got a few dishes added to it. Here are what I tried and how they ended up being.

Inari Potato Salad

To be honest, a salad was wrapped with tofu the last dish I expected to try in a Japanese restaurant despite being a fan of the usual salads their cuisine serves. The wrapping consisted of compltely mashed potatoes and this cold salad tasted similar to coleslaw when had as whole.

Mochi

That’s right, a savory mochi — a first for me too. I’m a fan of the sweet variant and the fact that it’s so hard to find them in Chennai makes me crave for them often, but this mochi served with mushroom sauce and shimeji mushrooms. As a fan of mushrooms, I loved this dish and the sauce which was packed with flavors added the perfect kick to this dish.

Soba Sushi

You know how much importance I give to vegetarian food when you can see that I haven’t even taken a picture of this dish. But that doesn’t mean, it isn’t something you shouldn’t fancy. As the name implies, this vegetarian sushi includes buckwheat noodles along with the regular veg sushi fillings such as cucumber and greens.

Tempura Maki

And now you’re talking! Probably the most well known — thanks to being westernized — tempura maki is also the most common form of sushis eaten and obviously, it’s super delicious. Topped with fried crumbs and filled with prawn tempura (which is an amazing Japanese snack on its own), this dish is a treat to any sushi lover like me.

Tofu Steak

I’ve never tried a sizzler in a Japanese restaurant and these dishes were truly a surprise to me. The vegetarian variant had large chunks of tofu along with their mushroom sauce and shimeji mushroom pieces, served alongside miso soup and rice. Though it was pretty good, it would’ve been better if the tofu chunks had been smaller in size.

Yakiniku Beef

The non-vegetarian variant of the sizzler plate had sliced beef along with onions. Though the sauce complemented the perfectly cooked beef slices, the onions were overpowering. Nevertheless, along with plain rice, it was good.

Chicken Udon

I wasn’t going to complete a meal at a Japanese restaurant without trying their udon. I personally love udon compared to regular noodles thanks to their thickness and it also makes it a perfect pick for noodle soups. The one we got had chicken in it but the noodles was so good that I didn’t really care about the meat. Talk about slupy goodness!

Garlic Fried Rice

Yet another victim of not being photographed as the photographer is a mean carnivore. To be honest, my expectations were very low considering the lack of meat in it, but the Garlic Fried Rice ended up being actually one of the best dishes we had that evening. The strong garlic flavour was just brilliant and it was one of those rare rice dishes which doesn’t actually need a side.

Azuki Beans, Mochi and Ice Cream

Taking a modern twist on the good old mochi, what we had was more of a deconstructed version served with small discs of mochi topped with Azuki beans and ice cream along with a shower of matcha dust. Though the small mochi pieces felt out of place, the perfectly cooked beans and the ice cream were just an awesome combination which made it one of the simple yet best desserts I’ve had in recent times.

Overall, it was a wonderful experience at Yakiniku, Hyatt Regency. Serving a cuisine that’s often stereotyped with just sushi rolls, this restaurant strives to introduce their delicacies with a twist. With more options added for vegetarians, Japanese food is predominantly seafood is a statement my vegetarian friends can’t say anymore if they head to Yakiniku.